My journey through shadows and back again to mental health in words and images.

Tag Archives: Society

I guess you are scratching your head wondering about the meaning of MHAM, just a minute!!!

Recently the days are passing by so fast, and with so many things to do!! Half of May is already gone! May is Mental Health Awareness Month (MHAM) in the US, with lots going on, and the movement spreading around, still, there’s still so much to do!!

Raising awareness about mental health issues is of trascendental importance. The lack of understanding and the stigmas around the topic still make a lot harder already very hard lives, resulting in segregation, isolation, and even discrimination of those who live in darkness, making it so much more difficult to look forward recovery and healing. Many of the people who struggle with mental health disorders keep for themselves the suffering because of fear, fear of being misjudged, rejected and stigmatised, so they hide the pain and desolation inside until its no longer bearable and it becomes a dark monster so huge and uncontrollable that it devours the persons life, or takes it completely away, making it impossible to hide. Raising awareness also means helping society understand that mental health disorders, are just like diabetes, like cancer, like obesity, like allergic reactions…

During my last fall into darkness several months ago, I tied a green ribbon around my wrist, representing my will to live, to keep fighting, every day. A couple of weeks ago I learned that the green ribbon represents the mental health awareness movement (could it be coincidence?). I want this image to be a symbol of hope, of limitless endurance, of the importance of not living with pain in a silent loneliness and of the right we have of sharing our story and being embraced and understood, of the strength needed to fight everyday… a symbol of Life! With this image I want to raise my voice towards ending the stigmas around mental health disorders, in favor of a better comprehension, in favor of spreading the knowledge among the society so everyone finds that they are able to aid those living in pain and despair recover better and sooner, to live better lives, with empathy, love and compassion.